Rockstar’s PlayStation exclusive ‘Agent’ was scrapped to focus on GTA

All the way back in 2009, Rockstar announced plans to develop a new exclusive game for PlayStation consoles, known as Agent. After the reveal, Rockstar never mentioned the project again. Now over a decade later, a former Rockstar North veteran has shared details on what went on with the game behind the scenes. 

While modern Rockstar has mostly resigned itself to primarily working on its two best-known franchises, Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, over a decade ago, the studio was still exploring multiple new IPs, resulting in games like Bully, LA Noire and for a time, Agent was amongst those projects.

Former Rockstar technical director Obbe Vermeij, who worked at the studio for 14 years but left over a decade ago, published a blog post this week sharing some small details on the canned game ‘Agent'. Apparently, the game was going to be set in the 1970s and would be a more linear game compared to the GTA series, starring a spy known as Jimmy, who was set to be the Scottish version of James Bond.

The game was being developed for quite some time but it didn't progress as quickly as the team had apparently hoped. Production on Grand Theft Auto IV was due to ramp up and in an effort to finish Agent before having to move on to support the development of the next Grand Theft Auto, the team began making cuts, including scrapping an entire level. However, the game was not completed in time and Rockstar's various studios were called in to help out on GTA 4, putting other projects on hold.

It is unclear if Rockstar had planned to return to Agent after GTA 4's release, but ultimately, the game was apparently viewed as a ‘distraction' from Rockstar's ambitions with GTA and as a result, the game was put on ice and Rockstar eventually abandoned the trademark for the game.

We do know one thing for sure though, this information was legitimate and Rockstar wasn't too happy about the small tidbits of information being shared, as Vermeij was swiftly contacted by the company and asked to remove the blog post, which he promptly did. However, all of the juicy details contained within have already done their rounds across the web.

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KitGuru Says: Agent would have been an interesting game but at the same time, Grand Theft Auto is Rockstar's crowning achievement, which is even more evident now after the decade-long success of Grand Theft Auto V. At this point in the studio's history, I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see an all-new IP from Rockstar for a very long time, outside of perhaps an experimental, small-scale game, like a VR project. 

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